Two actors from High Wycombe take to the Shakespeare's Globe stage

Two actors from High Wycombe take to the Shakespeare's Globe stage

Two aspiring actors from High Wycombe will be performing at Shakespeare’s Globe on Sunday.

Kirsten Obank, who attended Wycombe High School, and Richard Mellion, who attended St Michael’s Roman Catholic School (formerly St Bernard’s), will take part in the annual Sam Wanamaker Festival.

The festival is the UK’s biggest celebration of young acting talent and invites 38 students from 19 drama schools to a weekend of training by Globe Education professionals.

Arts Ed student Kirsten was a member of the Wycombe Swan Youth Project and Youth Theatre from the age of ten.

She says: “This is a dream come true for me, as I’ve always wanted to perform at the Globe since I was a little girl learning about Shakespeare at school. I started doing amateur dramatics in Lane End Primary School when I was nine years old and haven’t stopped since.

“It’s so great that Globe Education have given so many drama school students an opportunity to perform there at the Sam Wanamaker Festival, as it’s a magical place which really tests your technique as an actor. Not everyone will get the chance to experience that so I’m really excited about it.”

The students will present scenes by Shakespeare and his contemporaries on the Globe stage to a full house of Shakespeare enthusiasts, students and artist agents.

The festival will culminate in all the students joining together in a finale jig, a Globe tradition since 1997.

Of his selection for the festival, Italia Conti student Richard says: “I am honoured to be taking part in such a prestigious event and not only representing Italia Conti, but being able to meet and work with other young professionals who are helping to keep Shakespeare alive for another generation.

“In addition to this, getting to work with current professionals who work at the Globe is a privilege, and actually being able to tread the boards as an actor there is like a dream come true, there’s no other theatre like it.”

Although Richard then adds: “The Wycombe Swan was one of the first theatres I ever went to and it has long been an ambition of mine to perform there someday.”

Several past participants of the festival have gone on to receive international acclaim, including Golden Globe and BAFTA-nominated Andrew Garfield, known from The Amazing Spiderman, Never Let Me Go, and The Social Network and Michelle Dockery, best known as Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey.

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